Windows.

Everyone has opinions about old windows…I’m going to hesitantly state mine:

If we were rich and we had a lot of time and money, we would restore every single old window we ever come across. As it stands, we have to actually LIVE in this house, as do other people whom live in the houses we restore, so we replace windows. I’m not a purist, although I really think I make up for it in other ways…like refusing to fur-out walls for electrical. Ever. I ask all old home enthusiast for your forgiveness. The end.

I know that people say… “It’s not that hard to repair”, or “Put up storm windows” etc., but let me tell you…these windows were BAD.  Beyond saving.  Each had probably 30-40 drywall screws in them (special part of hell, remember) and were painted shut, broken, twisted, splintered etc. I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the windows before, because, quite frankly, I found it depressing.

Window day came, and it was pretty remarkable.  The house instantly went from condemned and scary  to Hey! We’re working on this, so keep your a** off our property.  Good times.

This is the bathroom window, in that top left corner was a bird nest that I discovered on accident and very much to my surprise.  I cried when that baby bird fell to the ground. For real. Renovating brings out all sorts of emotions!

Not to keep going on the sad train here, but this day was also a particularly low blow.  After the window in the kitchen went in, I noticed for the first time the beam over it…

Termites.

I cried then too. Obviously.

Luckily we have since repaired all of the termite damage and they are long gone, but I did avoid looking at this window for a long time.  I don’t know why, but every time I looked at it, my mind couldn’t help screaming at me… “What do you think you are doing!?” and that’s not something I like to hear. I have a 99% positive attitude when it comes to restoring old houses, and ain’t nobody got time for that.

We got the old boards off of the back as well and discovered the old summer kitchen layout…pretty interesting.  It burned down in about the 1930’s, but I found a cool picture of it that I will upload soon.

It was extra amazing to put new glass in the old doors.  Unlike windows that have to function and move up and down, I feel like almost ANY old doors can be saved.  They were/are pretty bad, but we are going to slowly work on each one to get them back to awesome.

I think this door is representative of what the original front door was…now there is a 1920’s door on the front.  It’s cute and still old, but one day we would like to try to find another Italianate like this.

We also took down the boards above the front door to reveal the old transom area that was covered, plastered and ruined.  We had grand visions of our stained glass here with the year of the house (fast forward: check it out on Instagram—->)

Andy almost fell off the ladder here (not pictured.)

There they are! Oh man, looking at this picture reminds me of how badly I wanted to keep the cement and it’s beautiful patina on the outside.  After patching everything, sadly, it could not be.

In hind site, I wish I had put mullions in like the originals were (4-square), but at the time, they didn’t have those with my vendor.  We did put them in Art City and they are so, so great.  I am going to devise a way to do it down the road.

Love House was quickly becoming all buttoned up and ready for inside work!  Next up…Ceilings coming down!